Last week, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees published an update on their website regarding contract negotiations for workers employed at Lethbridge Polytechnic.
Bargaining with Lethbridge Polytechnic, which was called Lethbridge College prior to a name change in the summer of 2024, for the new contract began that June, just before the last contract expired.
The most recent collective agreement for these more than 350 workers expired in June 2024, but it took nearly two years after the previous one had expired before this one was finally ratified. And now that it has been roughly a year and half for a new one, with no end in sight, we might see something similar this time around.
AUPE members at Lethbridge Polytechnic fill a wide variety of positions, including research assistants, kitchen workers, tech support, caretakers, administrative assistants, cashiers, accounting, lab technicians, communications, and tradesworkers.
According to AUPE, during a bargaining session in October 2024, the employer rejected all monetary proposals put forward by the workers’ bargaining team, including wage increases.
Instead, they want these workers to take a 7.5% wage increase spread out over a 4-year contract.
| 2024 | 2.00% |
| 2025 | 2.00% |
| 2026 | 1.75% |
| 2027 | 1.75% |
That comes to an average of 1.88% per year.
When the two parties met this past summer, Lethbridge Polytechnic refused to budge at all, stubbornly insisting on remaining at 7.5% over 4 years. They also refused worker proposals for a cost of living adjustment, a living wage, and long-service increases.
Not only that, but most public sector bargaining units have been getting 12% over 4 years when negotiating new collective agreements over the past year or so. A 7.5% increase is what public sector workers were getting in 2023 and early 2024.
In last week’s update, AUPE said that Lethbridge Polytechnic has since increased their offer to 12% over 4 years, and while 12% does seem like a lot, it actually falls short when viewed in context.
Here’s what these workers had received over the last decade:
| 2013 | 0.00% |
| 2014 | 2.50% |
| 2015 | 2.50% |
| 2016 | 1.90% |
| 2017 | 0.00% |
| 2018 | 0.00% |
| 2019 | 1.00% |
| 2020 | 0.00% |
| 2021 | 0.00% |
| 2022 | 0.00% |
| 2023 | 2.75% |
These workers received 6 years of wage freezes between 2013 and 2023 and a combined 10.65% during that period, which works out to 1.07% per year, on average.
So, this new raise is better than they have received in any of their last 4 contracts. But those 6 wage freezes means wages for these workers have fallen behind inflation during the past decade.
In July 2012, the consumer price index in Alberta was 126.8 but had risen to 166.0 by July 2023, an increase of 39.2 points. That’s a jump of 30.91%.
When you put that together with the 10.65% wage increase the workers received in their last contract, they ended up with a cut to real wages—wages adjusted for inflation—of 20.26% heading into this new round of bargaining.
To put that into perspective, for each $1000 these workers made in July 2012, it would be the same as getting paid $797.40 in July 2023, when accounting for wages and inflation.
In other words, for every $1000 they spent on goods and services in July 2012, it would’ve cost them $1,202.60 to buy the same goods and services in the summer of 2023. Either that, or they’d be able to afford only $797.40 of those goods and services.
Lethbridge Polytechnic’s proposal of 12% falls short of what is needed to address this reduction in real wages. And that’s not even addressing the inflation in 2024, last year, this year, or next year.
The bargaining team for the workers—which includes an administrative assistant, a funding specialist, and an admissions specialist—has tried to push the employer for more to make up that 20% wage gap. But Lethbridge Polytechnic refuses to budge.
At least on the percentage.
According to the workers’ bargaining team, Lethbridge Polytechnic insists “they cannot afford to add percentages to their current wage offer of 12% over four years”.
However, they have offered to removed the bottom two steps of the wage grid. In the last collective agreement, there were 14 steps in the wage grid. This means that anyone in the bottom two steps would be bumped up toe the third step, automatically giving them an additional pay raise.
Which would be great for them. However, more than 90% of the workers covered by this collective agreement would not benefit from this additional increase. Plus, the new class level 1 step would still come in under $18 an hour, which is more than $4 below the living wage for Lethbridge.
The workers’ bargaining team proposed adding two grid steps rather than removing two, which they argue would mean increases for all workers covered by this contract.
Lethbridge Polytechnic has offered to increase their percentage of the co-pay for part-time worker health beenfits, as well as increase the flex spending account amount, but they have made those concessions dependent on whether the workers’s bargaining team accepts their wage proposal.
The employer has not been willing to improve special leave days or bereavement leave days.
They have agreed to recognize the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation this year and next year, but were not willing to add it to the collective agreement.
Both parties have agreed to improve vacation accrual entitlements for workers who have been with Lethbridge Polytechnic for a long time.
| Length of vacation | Years of service Old | Years of service Proposed |
|---|---|---|
| 15 days | 1–5 years | 1–5 years |
| 20 days | 6–10 years | 6–10 years |
| 25 days | 11–24 years | 11–18 years |
| 30 days | 25+ years | 19+ years |
The two parties have agreed to proceed to mediation, as they do not seem to be able to reach a wage increase they can both agree on.
